A Survey of Reforms of the Basic Social Welfare Structure and New Developments in the Community Welfare System

Research Project

Project/Area Number	14510235
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	社会学(含社会福祉関係)
Research Institution	Ritsumeikan University
Principal Investigator	KATO Sonoko Ritsumeikan University, College of Social Sciences, Professor, 産業社会学部, 教授 (70066413)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	HUJIMATU Motoko Bukkyo University, Department of social welfare, 社会学部, 助教授 (40261721)
Project Period (FY)	2002 – 2003
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2003)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,300,000) Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000) Fiscal Year 2002: ¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
Keywords	Fundamental reforms / Community welfare / Controllers / Public responsibility / Privatisation / Ombudsman for the elderly / Care inspectors / Persons responsible for protection of human rights / 社会福祉基礎構造改革 / インスペクター / オンブズマン / 要介護高齢者 / 人権擁護と公的責任 / 民営化と行政責任 / 地域福祉権利擁護事業 / 判断能力が不十分な人 / 社会福祉の「民営化」 / 高齢者オンブツマン / 専門員 / 生活支援員
Research Abstract	The new reformed system of social welfare aims to protect the human rights of people who may be overlooked, specifically the elderly and those people seen as having insufficient decision-making ability. When assessing the policies of the community welfare system, it is important to examine experiments in Sweden, which has also been reforming and relaxing the rules of its social welfare system since the 1990s, in order to learn about its underlying philosophy, current situation and related issues. After examining trends in local initiatives in community welfare in Japan, and trends in social welfare for the elderly in Sweden in the first year of the study, fieldwork was carried out during the current year on the mechanisms and actual conditions of high quality care for the elderly in Sweden, specifically: 1. Interviews with those responsible for social welfare services in Socialstirelsen (Department of Health and Welfare) about the background to the changes in social welfare policy which resulted in strengthening of the protection of human rights of the elderly. 2. Interviews with those responsible for protection of the rights of the elderly in the Stockholm commune, such as care inspectors and ombudsman for the elderly. 3. Investigation of practices in a specific commune in sollentuna It would be hasty to make evaluations about the specific characteristics of communes based on a small number of examples, so further research is necessary, but the fundamental principles of public responsibility in the privatisation of social welfare and protection of human rights, and their practice are inseparable. There are many issues in the Swedish case from which Japan should learn in order to facilitate efforts in creating a new system.